The Education of Children from the Standpoint of Theosophy

by Rudolf Steiner

Before physical birth the nascent human being is enclosed on all sides by an alien physical body. It does not come into contact independently with the outward physical world. The physical body of the mother forms its environment. This body alone can influence the maturing fœtus. Physical birth consists precisely in the fact that the physical body of the mother releases the child, thereby causing the surroundings of the physical world to influence him immediately. The senses open themselves to the outward world, and this latter is thereby able to exercise those influences over the child which were previously exercised by the physical body of the mother.

For a spiritual comprehension of the world such as is represented by Theosophy, the physical body is then actually born, but not yet the etheric or vital body. As the child until the moment of its birth is surrounded by the physical body of the mother, so too until the time of his second teeth, about the age of seven, is he surrounded by an etheric and an astral covering. Not until the time of the change of teeth does the etheric covering release the etheric body. Then until the time of puberty there still remains an astral covering.[6] At this period the astral or desire body also becomes free on all sides, as did the physical body at the time of the physical birth and the etheric body at the time of the second teeth.

Thus then, Theosophy must speak of three births of man. Certain impressions, which are intended to reach the etheric body can reach it as little, up to the time of the second teeth, as the light and air of the physical world can reach the physical body while it remains in the womb of the mother.

Before the coming of the second teeth the free vital body is not at work. As the physical body, whilst in the womb of the mother, receives powers which are not its own, and within that protective covering gradually develops its own, so is this also the case with these later powers of growth, until the time of the second teeth. Only at this period does the etheric body perfect its own powers in conjunction with the inherited and alien ones. During this time, while the etheric body is freeing itself, the physical body is already independent. The etheric body which is gradually freeing itself, perfects that which it has to give to the physical body. And the final point of this work is the child’s own teeth, which come in the place of those he has inherited. They are the densest things embedded in the physical body and therefore at this period appear last.

After this period, the child’s own etheric body takes care of its growth alone. Only the latter still remains under the influence of an enveloped astral body. As soon as the astral body becomes free as well, a period is terminated for the etheric body. This termination takes place at the time of puberty. The reproductive organs become independent, because from henceforth the free astral body does not work inwardly, but openly encounters the external world.

As one is not able to let the influences of the outward world affect the child physically before it is born, so those powers (which are the same to him as the impressions of the physical surroundings to the physical body) should not be allowed to affect the etheric body before the time of the second teeth. And the corresponding influences upon the astral body ought only to be brought into play at the time of puberty.

Common phrases, such as, “the harmonious training of all the powers and talents,” and the like cannot form the foundation for a true system of education, for this can only be built upon a genuine knowledge of the human being. We do not mean to affirm that the above-mentioned phrases are incorrect, but only that they are as valueless as if one were to say with regard to a machine, that all its parts must be brought into harmonious working order. Only he who approaches it, not with mere phrases, but with a real knowledge of the particular kind of machine, can handle it. This applies also to the art of education, to the knowledge of the principles in a human being and of their individual developments; one must know which part of the human being should be influenced at a certain time of life, and how to bring such influences to bear upon him in a suitable manner. There is indeed no doubt that a really intelligent system of education, such as is outlined in these pages, can make its way but slowly. This is due to the manner of viewing things in our day, wherein the facts of the spiritual world will still be considered for a long time as merely the overflow of a mad fantasy, while common-place and entirely superficial phrases will be regarded as the result of a really practical way of thinking. We shall here proceed to give a free outline of what will be considered by many at the present time a mere mirage of the fancy, but which will in time come to be an accepted fact.

At physical birth, the physical human body is exposed to the physical environment of the external world, whilst previously it was encircled by the protective body of the mother. That which the forces and fluids of the mother’s body did to it previously must now be done by the forces and elements of the outer physical world. Up to the time of the second teething, at the age of seven, the human body has a mission to perform for itself, which is essentially different from the missions of all the other life-epochs. The physical organs must form themselves into certain shapes during this time; then structural proportions must take definite directions and tendencies. Later on growth takes place, but this growth in all future time proceeds on the bases of the shapes which were in process of formation until the time mentioned. If normal shapes have been forming themselves, normal shapes will afterwards grow, and conversely from abnormal bases will proceed abnormal results. One cannot make amends in all the succeeding years for that which, as guardian, one has neglected during the first seven years. As the right environment for the physical human body is provided by Nature, before birth, so after birth it is the duty of the guardian to provide it. Only this correct physical environment influences the child in such a way that his physical organs mould themselves into the normal forms.

There are two magic words which epitomise the relation which is formed between the child and its environment. These are: Imitation and Example. Aristotle, the Greek philosopher, called man the most imitative of animals, and for no other period of life is this more applicable than for the age of childhood up to the time of the second teething. The child imitates whatever takes place in its physical environment, and in the imitation his physical organs mould themselves into the forms which then remain to them. The term physical environment is to be taken in the widest sense imaginable. To it belongs not only that which takes place materially round the child, but everything that is enacted in his surroundings, everything that may be observed by his senses, everything that from all points of physical space can influence his spiritual forces. To it also belong all actions, moral or immoral, sensible or foolish, that the child may see.

It is not by moral texts, nor by rational precepts, but by what is done visibly before the child by the grown-up people around him, that he is influenced in the manner indicated. Instruction produces effects only upon the etheric body, not upon the physical, and up to the age of seven the etheric body is surrounded by a protective etheric shell, just as the physical body until physical birth is surrounded by the body of the mother. That which ought to be developed in this etheric body in the way of ideas, habits, memory, etc., before the age of seven, must develop itself “spontaneously,” in the same way as the eyes and ears develop themselves in the womb of the mother without the influence of the external light. It is written in an excellent educational book, Jean Paul’s Levana or Pedagogics, that a world-traveller learns more from his nurse in his early years than in all of his travels put together. This is undoubtedly true, but the child does not learn by instruction, but by imitation. And his physical organs form themselves through the influence of his physical surroundings. A healthy vision is formed when the right colors and conditions of light are brought into the child’s environment, and the physical foundations for a healthy moral nature are formed in the brain and in the circulation of the blood, when the child sees moral things in his environment. When the child, up to the age of seven, sees only foolish actions taking place around him, his brain assumes such forms as to make him also, in later life, capable only of foolishness.